Sébastien Loeb forced to retire in Abu Dhabi

While the Dacia driver (who is celebrating his 51st birthday today) had just set the best time at the first intermediate checkpoint in this second part of the Marathon stage of the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, Loeb rolled over from the front, just one kilometer later. The race direction announced that he was leaving the stage as a result, awaiting assistance, and that he would not continue on his route in this second round of the 2025 World Rally Raid Championship season. Loeb explained the incident on his social networks: "We started off at a good pace and were leaders of a special stage that looked good with Fabian Lurquin. Unfortunately, by missing a Waypoint by less than 10 metres, like all our competitors given the tracks, we did a 360 to validate it, which we did, but caught in our dust, we missed a mini dune and went into a barrel roll from the front. Really sorry for the whole team."

As in the Dakar, the Alsatian will however be able to hit the road again tomorrow towards Abu Dhabi, for the final stage of the event. Unranked, he would thus serve as potential support for Nasser Al-Attiyah, leader of the general classification and engaged in a duel against the Brazilian Lucas Moraes and his Toyota. In the event of a problem, being able to quickly count on a teammate to provide spare parts could be all the Qatari needs to impose himself once again in the Emirati desert.

For Sébastien Loeb, it's a difficult start to the season, as he is entered in the entire World Championship with Dacia. The nine-time world rally champion left the Dakar caravan on the fourth day of competition, and hoped to reverse the trend on this second event, in Abu Dhabi. He will now have to focus his attention on the Safari Rally South Africa, from May 18 to 24, the third of the five rounds of this 2025 W2RC season.

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